20 December 2004	Monday	07 Ziqa'ad 1425

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Combating corruption is not easy in a society that has a tendency to blatantly justify corrupt acts and practices to the extent that those who tend to or try to tread the straight path are made to feel "deviant" and stupid.

What were traditionally believed to be corrupt paths are not only sanctioned by the society but new modes of corruption keep appearing as there is no dearth of "creativity" in this respect even though we would have been better off with less of "innovation" in this area.

The situation is made more complex as attempts at accountability are not even-handed which tends to further distort the lop-sided view of morality that the society has acquired over time.

As attempts at combating corruption need to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people, there is also a need to review the various types of deviant practices that have emerged with the mindset of "so what?" This attitude is likely to prevail unless there is a broad consensus on what is deviant and how might the situation be remedied.

In the absence of social sanctions, the society will continue to approve of deviant methods all of which will not be possible to nab by a single organization which too will remain vulnerable to not only the same social ills but also to an onslaught from the society, fair or foul.

Corruption is, therefore, difficult to root out in the presence of a context that is responsible for the generation and promotion of corruption. Unless the context undergoes a change, NAB (National Accountability Bureau) will be in business for a long time when a true jab at corruption should put into effect a sunset clause for NAB.

While NAB's virtual standing in perpetuity would not only not augur too well for the country as far as the traditional modes of corruption are concerned, a narrow definition of corruption also tends to exclude all the "innovative" deviant and corrupt practices that keep surfacing over time as corruption takes deeper roots and spreads wider.

Traditional view of corruption revolved around bribes, smuggling, kickbacks, embezzlement, non-payment of government dues in the form of taxes and other levies, and taking illegal connections for the supply of utilities.

This list is not exhaustive. Even the traditional view now stands transformed in the eyes of many people who view these "illegal" activities as "legitimate" under the conditions prevailing in the country.

With no limits to the people's ability to rationalize deviant behaviour, their rationalization cannot be given summary treatment and dismissed. There is a need to study the ground of their argument and then deal with it at that level as well in addition to nabbing outright corruption for which there should be no excuse.

But, if a sizeable mass of opinion is going contrary to what the law views as corrupt, there is a need to simultaneously address the arguments justifying corrupt acts. In addition, the conditions that the apologists think are responsible for corruption should be taken adequate care of so that their reasons for resorting to corrupt acts are rooted out.

One, therefore, needs to know the justifications that tend to legitimize "illegal" acts such as the ones mentioned above. One would then need to figure out how the situation might be remedied effectively.

Effective remedy not only requires treatment of symptoms through nabbing corruption and taking punitive action but to also create a sense of values shared throughout the society that would, by themselves, deter corrupt behaviour. A review of the various prevalent values or disvalues, if you will, would, therefore, be in order.

Some religious leaders in the tribal areas are of the view (or made to be of the view) that since all the land belongs to Allah, the territorial boundaries are man-made. People may traverse the land of God freely as land is God's gift to us.

So, there is no such thing as "illegal smuggling" which they view as a figment of the imagination of those who draw boundaries to consolidate their hold over tracts of land and divide the world up amongst themselves to maximize the gains of the dominant groups.

With this belief system, smuggling may be declared "illegal" according to the laws of the land but not illegitimate for as long as parts of the country are governed not by the legal system but by a parallel private justice/jirga system that might ironically also stand "legalized" if certain government moves in this direction succeed.

If this travesty of justice is permitted, there will be two sets of laws for urban and rural areas. In the case of this eventuality, an illegal but perfectly "legitimate" activity of smuggling in the eyes of some might actually even stand "legalized" if the "legalized" jirgas rule in favour of those shipping unauthorized goods across the border.

How will this corrupt act be nabbed then when it is difficult enough to nab it even now due to its perfect "legitimacy" in the minds of many who indulge? While this dis value is yet to be called as such, legalization of jirgas will push effort towards reversal of "dis values" further into the future.

Perpetrators of other forms of corruption will have one more reason for justifying their corrupt acts that they keep justifying anyway for various reasons. Some other corrupt acts include bribes, kickbacks, and abuse of powers vested in various positions of authority.

The corrupt justify these for various reasons including the abuse of authority and patronage dispensed at various levels in the country that they almost "benchmark" for justifying their own pursuits in the direction of material wealth maximization.

Since they see a selective application of the norms of morality, they feel further legitimized in their deviant acts. And, the meagre compensation structure in government and public sector organizations further drives them in the above unacceptable direction that they then also rationalize on the above lines.

Situation has deteriorated to the extent that it is considered mighty silly by a large segment of the population to ful fill their legal obligations in the form of payment of taxes, duties, excise, as well as a full payment for utilities they consume at times through illegal connections.

About taxes, it is generally believed that they are not used for the purpose specified. Tax evasion is, therefore, considered wiser even though federal taxes are consumed under the heads covered and the "reason" given for evasion is absolutely fallacious and frivolous to say the least.

As for road and water taxes, we do not have the kind of carpeted roads that people would like to ply their limos on but the fact that they commute means that there are roads for which people must pay. And, that they remain clean and keep quenching their thirst also shows that they get water for basic necessities for which too they must pay even if the water does not run for 24 hours.

This kind of argument falls on deaf ears though as people are so used to consuming public goods without paying for them adequately that they see no reason why they must cough up their share.

Years of non-/inadequate payment push them into a self-perpetuating cycle which can be broken effectively only if the iron hand of law is coupled with strong persuasion. Strong persuasion, however, necessitates even-handed treatment to all and sundry in the society.

This even-handed treatment is not too easy for even the law enforcement agencies as some are more equal than others in our society characterized more by injustice than justice which should be the hallmark of a true Islamic society.

Until a just socio-economic order comes up, people will keep finding reasons for circumventing the law which they believe should not be applied only to them. And, until then the concept of rizq-e-halal will remain lost. Blind pursuit of rizq+ will be considered wise.

Corruption will remain rampant keeping the nabbing and law enforcement agencies very very busy for a long time to come so much so that many a blind pursuit of rizq will be "innovative" enough to not even fall within the purview of nabbing authorities.

Inefficiencies in public organizations will increase as people will want to take their salaries home with minimal effort at work. This single-most important act of gross corruption is eating into the roots of government organizations like termite that no law enforcement agency can even track down.

And, this is simply because not earning rizq-e-halal is not viewed to be corrupt enough in a society whose values have been overshadowed by a much more powerful dis value system which is a strong source of growing corruption in the society.

So, in addition to nabbing corruption, rooting out corruption is also and more importantly an exercise in restructuring the insights of people through example and action viewed as credible by all.

Unless deviant acts of various kinds and at various levels are also viewed as "deviant" by all levels for all levels, the perceptions of people will remain unchanged.

People will then keep trying to catch up with the multifarious haves of the country through means similar to the ones that are used by many of the country's who-is-who to climb whatever ladders they find enroute without determining whether the "ladder is leaning against the right wall."

The primordial goal in corruption eradication is to show the "walls" that people can scale by staying clean and in a transparent enough manner. The movement for this purpose could be in all directions; that is, from macro levels to micro levels and/or from micro to macro and/or horizontally and/or diagonally so as to eventually build a just socio-economic order strong enough to command rightful acts not out of fear of law but out of moral conviction.

Only then can the country be also cleaned up from corruption, the importance of nabbing corruption notwithstanding which pace must be maintained relentlessly in parallel.